Monthly Archives: January 2014

Firstly, sorry it’s taken a bit longer that usual to get this update out. (It’s on Steam right now, and Humble builds will appear this evening.) The Christmas break didn’t help, but mostly the delay is due to a massive overhaul of the animation system. The fruits of this are quite subtle, but you will notice it in terms of less jerky transitions between certain animation states, or a subtle slowing-to-stop of the bots. The system is now far more reliable and robust for pathing. It also needed to be done to implement the new NPC, The Rider.

These mounted toff-bots enjoy toasting your unhealth with a blast from their mount’s leg-jets. Crispy!

Less dramatically, we’ve got a new audio levels system, reworked NPC release schedules, tweaks to combat, sticker explosives, braver ravens not to mention independent head-movement with TrackIR support (PLEASE NOTE: 32-bit ONLY). Here’s a video of TrackIR working, with a glimpse of The Rider in-game:

As always feedback on the forums is very gratefully received. Enjoy!

IMPORTANT NOTES:
This update will break your saves.

Changes

* NEW -Enemy type: The Rider.
* NEW – Support for independent head movement with TrackIR. (PLEASE NOTE: 32-bit ONLY)
* NEW – Group-based volume system. You can now set volumes for various things separately (Turn down robot beep-boops, hush Mr. Walters, your butler etc etc).
* Controller Enable/Disable toggle. Off by default. Should also prevent false inputs causing incorrect movement.
* Complete reworking of the animation systems for all bots. Results in smoother transitions between states and smoother, more reliable movements between pathing nodes.
* NEW – Added ability to clear markers from the map. Mouseover a marker to reveal delete option.
* Leaning distance increased.
* Revised release schedule for NPCs. Different types of NPC will now be released based on number of pieces returned OR time spent in world. Whichever comes first…
* Reduced required number of fragments for escape to 17 (note: this will be configurable in t he final game!).
* Ravens have become acclimatised to Robot footsteps. No more Raven/Robot s pooked/investigate-loop love-ins at village centres…
* Dynamite 100% stickier. Less likely to skid along the ground for ages, easier to hit what you threw it at.
* Dynamite explosion radius increased.
* Moved FOV slider to Game Options. Now works realtime (can see changes without having to exit menu).
* Reduced the chance to bleed.
* Tweaked some combat variables for Hunters because a bugfix (see reloading issue below) resulted in changed behaviour in combat. Feedback on new combat feel with Hunters welcomed.
* Various loot distribution tweaks.

Fixes
Fixed an issue where poacher could get stuck in Idle.
Fixed an issue where squires could get stuck on the spot.
Fixed incorrect angle of shotgun on Hunters.
Fixed issue where using the Sex Toggle could break your profession button…
Fixed issue where robot blather loops could be turned off permanently (would lead to stealth-bots!)
Fixed several cases where bots guarding the doors on some buildings could get stuck.
Fixed an issue where the dog pinning sequence could flicker wildly.
Fixed issue where the mouse could become frozen on the death screen.
Fixed issue where using an item while dying could freeze the game and also ruin that save.
Fixed an issue where death while menu open could break the fall-to-ground.
Fixed an issue with bot barks between glimpse-state and Attack playing at the incorrect times.
Fixed an issue where the Axe could get stuck at weird angles when swapping equipment.
Fixed a serious issue with bot reloading logic. Robots could sometimes have more (or less) rounds that they should, resulted in either extra shots (surprise!) or no shots at all (in inter-bot combat this could even result in endless posturing without a single shot being fired).

More Sir news coming next week, but before that we have a beautiful diversion for you. This is a procedural generation prototype from Tom’s library of magic, which he finished off over Christmas. It looks a little like this:

[Please feel free to circulate those links to anyone who might enjoy it.]

In Permutation Racer you race against the clock to reach checkpoints, collecting stars (you can jump, don’t forget) and avoiding barriers or red spikes. Because it’s all mathematically generated, every track is different. This is just a prototype, so it’s very simple, but we think you’ll enjoy it. You might even recognise some of the procedural geometries from other images we’ve posted from our Lodestone project.

Let us know what you think, report bugs, and post screenshots of your high scores, over on the forums.